Tempering Chocolate

Uh oh, do I feel a new hobby coming on? I always thought tempering chocolate was a task too difficult for me to take on, especially without fancy equipment. Maybe it's just after years of practicing patience in baking and a better understanding of sugar that I am able to tackle chocolate.

Armed with my digital thermometer this was my process:

• Melt couverture chocolate in a bain marie up to 120° F
• Seed it with some tempered chocolate around 85°
• Bring temperature down to 80°
• Bring it back up to 89-90°
• All while stirring like crazy to make sure those beta crystals were thoroughly distributed.

Will you believe that it worked?! I certainly didn't. I tested the chocolate for fingerprints, melting, blooming, and many other suspects of untempered chocolate a million times, but they never showed up.

Then, after seeing my candied meyer lemon cake last week, my friend Natalie came over to candy some more citrus from her backyard trees. We candied grapefruit, orange, blood orange, and lemon. Of course, I had to try dipping these in chocolate as well. I might create a tutorial on how to candy citrus if there is interest (let me know by leaving a comment!). It's simple and straightforward with satisfying results. Perhaps a great homemade Valentine's gift!